The morning sky was beautiful shades of indigo blue. Lots of clouds. Lots of color.

Even the Chicago Skyline was clouded over…

As the morning continued, the indigo blue disappeared… and changed to shades of gray!

Another quiet morning before the weekend madness begins on the lakefront. With weather this perfect, the lakefront gets extra crowded… and kind of painful to ride through. I’m so used to having the path pretty much all to myself. So I try to avoid it when it gets too crazy!!!… like later this afternoon!!!

And then… talk about being at the right place at the right time… or maybe the wrong place??? Ever wonder what it’s like to be under a helicopter when it lands? And what it feels like to be pelted by debris and flying sand as it comes down to land?

Well, as “luck” would have it… when I was down along Ohio Street Beach taking pictures of the sunrise, a helicopter came flying in from the north. Then turned… and came right over me to land on Lake Shore Drive!!!

Yes, they had closed off LSD to road traffic, and the bike path a bit further south of me, as the helicopter was landing. Apparently, one of the old buildings along LSD is being renovated and they were flying construction supplies to the rooftop. And from the looks of it, they’ll be getting all new air conditioning units up there soon too!

This morning I squeezed in another early morning ride. Luckily I got through the madness before the “Elvis Is Alive” 5K Run began… although there were already a few Elvises (or is it Elvi???) on the scene as I rode through. There’s gonna be a “Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Goin’ On” later this morning! Not me… but thousands of runners, many of them dressed up as Elvis Presley!!! I will be substitute teaching another pottery class later this morning.

The morning started out very dark, cloudy & windy. With large waves crashing in, it seemed pretty obvious that it was a better choice to take more pictures than to go for my early morning swim! My Mom would be pleased with my choice.

So I played with my camera… and tried to “catch” the waves.  And I’m glad that I did…
the sunrise was stunning through all of the colorful changes & crazy waves splashing ashore!!!

And then the sunrise colors blossomed… and the waves kept crashing in!

Without waves… and with waves… it’s all in the timing!

Sometimes the waves actually obliterated the sunrise from view.

Soon enough, the sun made it up high enough… and it disappeared behind the clouds.
Leaving just a beautiful stripe of gold along the horizon.

Soon enough, the clouds peeked out and created perfection in the sky!

The morning sky had one big, mountainous cloud.
And as luck would have it… it blocked the sunrise!
At least for the majority of the morning.

It finally broke up as I was finishing my ride and we were finally treated to a beautiful, reflective sunrise!

Clouds. Dark. Moody.
I kind of thought that we might miss the sunrise all together this morning.

But as the morning progressed… by sunrise expectations began to grow as well…

At just the right time the clouds & sun aligned and we got a beautifully majestic sunrise.

And then when I got home… it rained.

Hard to believe that summer is flying by SO fast?!!!
Can’t believe it’s already August!!!

It was a classic morning with a classic sunrise.

It was another dark morning…
with a delayed sunrise due to the layer of low-flying clouds on the horizon.